


Up close and personal

by ricekrispyjoints



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Banter, FMA AU, Found Family, Fullmetal Alchemist AU, Gen, M/M, Training Montage, all the details are fake i'm sorry, blame google, viktor and yuuri accidentally adopted a son
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-02
Updated: 2020-03-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:53:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22983580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ricekrispyjoints/pseuds/ricekrispyjoints
Summary: Yuri Plisetsky is going to become the youngest ever State Alchemist, with or without Viktor's help.(A somewhat flimsy FMA AU that no one asked for.)
Relationships: Katsuki Yuuri & Yuri Plisetsky, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Victor Nikiforov & Yuri Plisetsky
Comments: 8
Kudos: 23





	Up close and personal

**Author's Note:**

> so i started writing this in like, October thinking I would post it for the 18OI Bingo-ber 2019 event... but you see here we are in March... Marchber?? that works, right ? ;;^^
> 
> anyway... please forgive the slight bastardization of the FMA verse. let's call it creative license instead of something so callous as "complete lack of knowledge of the source material", yeah ?

When Yuri Plisetsky finally, _finally_ arrives at his destination, after three weeks of travel by train, then boat, then train again, he is past the point of seething rage and has fully decided upon a nice, cleansing homicide of one Viktor Nikiforov.

He yells at some poor local asking where that damn Gold Blade Alchemist is (and what a pretentious name for an alchemist, anyway, when gold is one of the things they are forbidden from creating, of all things), and fortunately the old man takes it in stride and points him in a vaguely eastern direction.

At this point, Yuri isn’t sure how much further east he can go without falling off the edge of the damn world.

(Yeah, yeah, he knows the earth isn’t flat; it’s an expression, alright?)

Yuri stomps toward his destination, passing through an open-air market, with various wares on display and tempting aromas filling the air.

He’s on a mission, though, and—

Oh _that,_ he has to have.

Like hell is he paying for it, though, so instead he studies the tiger-stripe pattern a bit longer before removing the sweater he’s currently wearing, clapping his hands together, and pressing them firmly to his sweater.

The plain black jacket transforms, imitating the one being sold by the stand.

The alchemy draws attention, a couple of children who saw him clap their hands in astonishment as their parent hurries them along, eyeing Yuri warily.

His blond hair marks him pretty clearly as a foreigner and doing alchemy with no drawn circle makes him even more suspicious; he doesn’t blame them.

The seller sees what Yuri’s done, and presumably complains in the local dialect about Yuri ripping him off.

Yuri scoffs, puts his “new” jacket on and continues in the direction that the old man told him he could find Viktor in.

He’s had more than enough time to prepare the verbal assault he’s about to launch on his former mentor, and the anticipation tastes sweet on his tongue.

(It begins with a slew of insults to Viktor’s character, followed by a list of his wrong doings, and concludes by the immediate reparations he is going to make to Yuri to apologize for his nearly unforgivable uselessness.)

He even kicks open the door of the large building at the end of the street, whose sign declares it as the “Ice Castle Hasetsu” (which of course, makes absolutely no sense), just to really seal the impact, despite the fact that he has no way of knowing if Viktor will see him kick the door open. He likes to take advantage of his automail leg where he can, though, despite the fact that the impact is more jarring than he had hoped.

(The leg is still new enough that he should absolutely not be kicking doors in with it; Otabek, his mechanic, would scold him to hell and back if he ever found out.)

There’s a young woman behind the counter who doesn’t seem much phased by Yuri’s entry.

She doesn’t even hesitate to address him in the common tongue. “Can I help you?”

She’s got reddish brown hair in a ponytail and seems deceptively young.

“I need to see that fool who calls himself the Golden Blade Alchemist.”

She does her best to hide her smirk when Yuri calls perhaps the most famous living State Alchemist a “fool”, but Yuri can tell she thinks it’s funny too.

“I’m sorry, but he’s in a meeting with another alchemist,” she says, regaining her professionalism. “Though they _should_ be finishing up soon?”

“I’ll wait,” Yuri grumbles, and shuffles over to an uncomfortable looking wooden chair opposite the reception desk.

He makes it about ninety seconds of pretending to be patient. Leaping to his feet, he tries to pace, but there’s not enough space in the lobby area to really make it anything but even more frustrating.

He sighs. “What is he even doing, anyway?”

“You knew he was here but not why?” the receptionist asks suspiciously.

“He owes me,” Yuri scoffs. “And I intend to make him keep his promise. I don’t actually care what he’s doing.”

“You didn’t hear this from me, but it’s not _what_ he’s doing,” says the receptionist conspiratorially, her voice hushed, “it’s _who_.”

Yuri sees red. “Is _that_ what this ‘meeting’ is about?”

“Oh, no, no, no,” she reassures, laughing. “Yuuri is very proper; they keep the funny business to the inn. This is a real meeting.”

“But it’s fake. Because Viktor is just here chasing tail.”

“Not entirely.”

Yuri glares at her until she continues. “How much do you follow the publication of scholarly articles?”

Yuri rolls his eyes. “Do I look like I give a shit about academia?”

(He absolutely gives a shit, as most academia these days tends to concern alchemy, but he has an _image_ to maintain.)

“Well I didn’t want to assume,” she says with a shrug. “Anyway, the Golden Blade Alchemist presented a paper on botany at a conference, which, since his specialty is really in metallurgy was kind of a surprise? And Yuuri—er, the Steam Alchemist—sort of ripped him apart. Published an article and everything.”

Yuri grins. Yes, he had indeed heard about this article. He even read it, to see if it was as vicious as everyone said, but it was all written very carefully so as to not be _directly_ insulting. A shame: the Steam Alchemist seems to be a fan of Viktor’s.

“And then about two weeks after it was published, Viktor-san showed up here. We all thought there was gonna be a throwdown—which would be hilarious, because I really don’t think Yuuri could’ve brought himself to fight Viktor—but it turns out he was actually thrilled that someone had critiqued him for once. They’ve been nearly inseparable ever since.”

Yuri stares in disbelief. “Leave it to that freak to get turned on by someone discrediting his work. What a loser.”

“Who’s a loser?” comes a new voice.

_Viktor._

“OI!” Yuri yells, whipping around and throwing an accusatory finger in the direction the voice came from. “You promised to train me for the State Alchemist exam!”

“I did?” Viktor says, and he sounds _completely_ ignorant of this—not like he’s trying to play dumb, but like he really, honestly doesn’t remember.

“Are you such an old man that your memory is going already?”

“Uh, Viktor?” a new voice says.

Yuri knows immediately that this is the Steam Alchemist.

One of the few State Alchemists who don’t suck ass, in Yuri’s opinion, though he lacks a certain level of destructiveness in his fighting.

Watching the Steam Alchemist fight is more like watching choreography: it’s beautiful, smooth, and feels very pre-meditated.

It lacks all the raw grit of a real fight, in Yuri’s opinion, but he has to admit the Steam Alchemist is skilled, which is probably why it’s so frustrating that he’s apparently been pulled into Viktor’s orbit.

Viktor, who is supposed to be preparing Yuri for his State Alchemist exam, so that Yuri can become the youngest ever State Alchemist.

He knows he has the skills, the knowledge, he just needs a little boost from someone with insider knowledge of the exam.

And Viktor had promised him, that if Yuri could transmute without a circle, he would teach him.

“Time to pay up,” Yuri demands, ignoring the Steam Alchemist for the moment.

“Don’t worry, Yuuri, this little kitty is all talk, no claws,” Viktor says, and Yuri growls.

“I’ll show you claws,” Yuri says, and claps his hands together to give himself little metallic claws on his normally fingerless gloves.

The look on Viktor’s face as he sees the circle-less transmutation is _beyond_ worth it.

“Remember now?” Yuri asks.

The Steam Alchemist seems much less impressed. “Oh, not you _too_ ,” he says.

“What?” Yuri snaps.

“What did you trade?” Katsuki Yuuri asks, his earlier fear of Yuri’s outburst gone in favor of an almost parental concern.

Yuri bristles at it, not having much experience with the whole parenting thing (Grandpa excepted). “It’s not a big deal.”

Yuuri looks him up and down, searching for a tell.

Apparently, he finds it.

“Roll up your pant leg,” he says, arms crossed and hip popped like a disappointed mother.

Viktor watches the whole spectacle eagerly, as though he isn’t at all concerned by Yuri having traded a limb for the ability to transmute without a circle, but like he was _hoping_ it would happen.

(Yuri will admit that he desperately wants to know what Viktor lost; he has his theories, but nothing he can prove.)

Like the angsty teenager he is, though, he rolls up his pant leg with a big show of how _inconvenient_ it all is.

At the first glimpse of sleek, dark grey metal, Yuuri sighs. “Did you put him up to this?” he asks, turning on Viktor.

“What? Of course not!” Viktor complains. “I would never tell him to lop off his leg!”

Yuuri looks unimpressed. “You and I both know that he did not _amputate his own leg_.” He rubs his temples. “Let’s take this somewhere more private, please.”

He leads them down a hallway, to a small office full of books and parchment paper and notebooks and a frankly alarming quantity of plants.

There is also an elderly, if tiny, poodle who greets them at the door with an excited tail wag.

“Er, sorry, there’s not a lot of room. You can take the chair, if you like,” Yuuri says to Yuri, gesturing. The Steam Alchemist himself sits on a pile of books.

Viktor remains standing.

Yuri is loathe to admit that his leg is still a little sore from his door-kick earlier, so he takes the offered seat.

“So, you opened the Door,” Yuuri states.

“I’m kind of impressed you figured it out,” Viktor says.

“ _Viktor_ ,” Yuuri scolds. “How old are you? Fourteen?”

“Almost sixteen,” Yuri says defensively. He’s not a _child_.

“Viktor, did you encourage this?”

Yuri wishes he could capture this moment forever: the oh-so-great Golden Blade Alchemist, trying to defend himself, getting utterly obliterated for it, and switching to groveling for the Steam Alchemist’s forgiveness, all in the span of about four minutes.

Viktor sufficiently chastised, Katsuki turns back to Yuri. “Who else knows you can do this?”

Yuri shrugs. “I didn’t go shouting it from the rooftops or anything, but I wasn’t going to hide it.”

“Which means you’ve been openly transmuting without a circle _or_ a State Alchemist’s license,” Katsuki surmises.

Yuri shrugs again. “What’s the big deal?”

Katsuki takes a calming breath that Yuri assumes is to keep him from losing his mind at how blasé Yuri is being.

He’s not stupid: he _knows_ it’s a big deal. If it wasn’t a big deal, it wouldn’t be _technically_ illegal to do what he did. If it wasn’t a big deal, he’d still have both his legs.

But he needs this to be as not-that-big-of-a-deal as possible, because otherwise he has to think about some pretty insane consequences that in hindsight, he’s not sure were worth it.

Viktor should never have dangled it in front of Yuri like a challenge; especially since Yuri was only fourteen when he first brought it up. It had taken him almost two years to open the Gate, and now he has the rest of his life to decide if he regrets that or not.

But Yuri likes to live in the moment, whenever possible, and so he brushes this off and stores it in a box for a later existential crisis.

“How did you manage to achieve what you did without understanding the gravity of what you were doing?” Katsuki finally says.

“Well why don’t you ask shit-for-brains here why he thought telling me that he’d train me for the State Alchemist exam if I could do it?”

“I didn’t think you’d figure it out _quite_ this fast,” Viktor says sheepishly, “and also I sort of assumed once you figured out what it was, you would think it was insane?”

“Well I did, and it is, but here we fucking are.” Yuri scuffs his foot against the floor, shifting in the chair to hide his discomfort. “You can’t change it now, and you can’t get my leg back, so let’s just focus on what you can fix: train me for the exam.”

“I can’t,” Viktor says.

“Like hell you can’t!”

“I’m helping Yuuri with his recertification experiment though.”

“Fuck that, you promised me first!” Yuri yells.

“Let me think,” Viktor says, as though he can cover his ass somehow.

“Come back to Peters and train me,” Yuri insists.

“What if I trained you here? That way I could still work on Yuuri’s experiment with him, but also help you.”

“As if I want to stay in this dump,” Yuri grumbles, but it’s mostly just to put up a fight.

“Let’s at least give it a try,” Viktor presses. “We can get you a room at Yuuri’s family’s inn, and I’ll give you a training schedule: I’ll spend mornings with Yuuri, and afternoons with you.”

Katsuki groans at hearing he gets the morning slot.

“If I don’t get you up in the morning, you’ll sleep the day away,” Viktor teases him.

Yuri pretends to gag. “Can you not be gross while I’m right here?”

Katsuki blushes and starts stammering an apology, but Viktor just gives an icy smile. “I thought you weren’t a child, Yuri? Besides, _that_ was quite tame, compared to other—”

“Enough!” Katsuki says emphatically. He turns an impressive shade of red.

Yuri does _not_ want to know.

(He’s sure Viktor is an absolute freak, but he was kind of hoping the Steam Alchemist wouldn’t be so… charmed by it all. He had higher hopes for someone who literally published an article calling out Viktor’s BS.)

“Fine. We can try it. But if you’re doing a shit job of training me, I’m dragging your ass back to Peters with me.”

“Alright,” Viktor agrees.

Katsuki looks more than a little panicked at the thought of Viktor leaving, but then a strange sort of determination settles across his face.

“I’ll ring Mari and tell her to set up a room for you.”

*

Yuri is not thrilled about the concept of bathing with other people, but otherwise the inn is… nice.

Watching Viktor trail after Yuuri like a lost puppy is more than a little pathetic, but he keeps his promise for the first few days fairly well. In the morning, Viktor works with Katsuki in the library, and after the three of them eat lunch together, Viktor throws Yuri through drill after drill, both physical and intellectual.

He gets quizzed on history, techniques, and laws.

They spar, training Yuri’s speed and precision, and formulate how he’ll demonstrate his mastery.

Yuri doesn’t have a particular specialty when it comes to alchemy; he just knows he wants to be better than Viktor.

Step one, of course, is getting State Certified as fast as he can: Viktor had been 16, so Yuri only has this year if he’s going to break Viktor’s record.

Since he doesn’t have a real focus in his studies, his attack plan for the state exam is to demonstrate his top three skill set areas, as determined by him and Viktor. There had been some _disagreements_ over what his strengths were, but they finally decide that his physical fighting skills and his knowledge of tinctures and poisons are the most developed, and he can work a medical interest angle with the latter. Yuri’s personal interest in cats, which Viktor insisted is _not_ a skill or ability, could be used in favor of a veterinary path.

Since his actual animal physiology knowledge is lacking, they focus on getting him up to speed there. Admittedly, Viktor is no expert either, but his capacity for research outpaces Yuri’s by miles, and so he guides and directs which readings to do, and they try to come up with some sort of demonstration he can do at the exam.

In the end, though, it’s Katsuki who has a brilliant idea, a week and a half into their routine.

“You’re spreading yourself too thin,” Katsuki says over lunch. “You’re trying to showcase fighting but also mediocre veterinary skills that are largely based on human medical knowledge and poisons. It’s completely contradictory.”

“But I’m _good_ at fighting,” Yuri complains. “And I mostly know about poisons and stuff from growing up on the farm.”

“Why not drop the veterinary angle though?” Katsuki says. “I know you like animals, but you can always come back to that later, once you’re certified. You need more time before they’d pass you based on your current knowledge.”

“You have an idea, don’t you?” Viktor says.

Katsuki nods. “Physiology.”

“What?” Yuri asks.

“It combines your fighting skills, and your knowledge of the human body,” Katsuki explains, “with the advantage of being an in-demand field.”

“Plus, with your new automail leg, it makes even more sense,” Viktor says, clearly agreeing. “I wonder if Yakov would call Liliya for us…”

“Liliya Baronovskaya?” Katsuki asks.

Viktor nods. “Our teacher back in Peters was married to her. But she’s the leading expert these days.”

They both turn to Yuri. “What do you think?”

Yuri pauses. “Will it get me certified?”

“If you listen to Liliya, then yes, I think it should,” Katsuki says.

“But you’ll have to really listen, Yura,” Viktor warns. “Not like with me. She won’t put up with you if you don’t shape up.”

“I’ll do whatever it takes,” Yuri says, gritting his teeth.

A phone call is made, quite a bit of shouting from Yakov is endured, and then Yuri is packing his bags to go back to Petersburg. 

Part of him is angry with Viktor, who, through Katsuki’s clever plan, has successfully rid himself of having to train Yuri for the exam.

But the other part of him knew that this was never going to be long term with Viktor.

He’s already got his sights set on his next project, and it doesn’t involve training up a protégé.

That’s fine; that’s not what Yuri wanted. Not really.

It just means that he’s going to work even harder to make everyone forget about the washed-up mess that the Golden Blade Alchemist has become.

Really, who leaves behind an amazing career in metallurgy to go learn about plants just because someone happened to call you a fucking moron in an academic journal?

Yuri will give his soul to Liliya Baronovskaya, the Prime Alchemist, and he will crush Viktor’s State Records into dust.

*

The next time Yuri sees Viktor, it’s the day of his State Alchemist exam.

He’s both pleased and pissed that Viktor came to watch him, and of course, Katsuki is tagging along as well.

Liliya and Yakov accompany Yuri to the exam room, as technically, Yakov is still his legal guardian who has to give permission for him to take the exam in the first place (as though Yakov isn’t at least 75% of the reason Yuri is becoming an alchemist in the first place).

Yuri has a written exam first, which will be graded before he’s allowed to complete the physical part.

Viktor and Yuuri wish him luck, and Yuri pretends to be furious in order to hide his embarrassment.

“You’re both so overbearing,” Yuri growls. “As if I need your support.”

“We’re very proud of you, Yuri,” Katsuki tells him, and Yuri decides not to snap at him since he actually used his correct name instead of that stupid nickname.

“Whatever,” Yuri says, but without any heat. He hopes that Katsuki knows it means _thank you_.

“Remain focused,” Viktor tells him.

“Wow, great advice,” Yuri drawls. “Didn’t think of that one.”

“It’s a long exam,” Viktor complains. “I just meant you may need to consciously refocus yourself throughout the test!”

“Then say _that_.”

“Vitya is not a man of words,” Yakov says sagely and Katsuki smiles sheepishly.

“There’s more than one way to pass the physical test, but the only thing that will get you through the written portion is your intelligence,” Liliya says sternly. “Do not think like a headstrong, impatient child. Think like an alchemist.”

Yuri nods firmly at her _actually helpful_ advice, and then the proctor arrives and ushers Yuri into the room.

The test is… hard.

Not impossible, no; but it definitely asks questions that literally no one will ever need to know off-hand beyond this exam (and perhaps the renewals of the license in a few years).

The first part is factual knowledge of laws and civil codes.

The second part is factual knowledge of alchemy.

And the third part is composed of two essays, wherein Yuri must detail how he, as a State Alchemist, would react in a given situation or mission.

He reminds himself of his studies with Liliya, remembers to not only repress his desire to make up some snarky response but to highlight his physical skills that he will be demonstrating in the second part of the exam tomorrow afternoon.

Nearly four hours later, with a cramping hand and his brain feeling like mush, he finishes his exam.

Yuri has never been one for school, so that just felt absolutely disgusting, if he’s being honest.

At the same time, he knows he aced the first two portions, and he thinks his responses to the two essay questions are pretty damn good, too.

(He had pored over them, trying to identify trick questions, weird loopholes, anything that might be a problem for his plan of action. _Think like an alchemist_.)

The proctor accepts his exam and Yuri leaves to find all four of his guests waiting for him.

“Did you wait here the entire time?” he asks.

“Some of us did,” Liliya says archly, giving Viktor the hairy eyeball.

“He got a little restless,” Katsuki explains before she can explain further. “So we went to the Ice Castle to check on my experiments, then came back.”

“Hm,” Yuri grunts.

“Well?” Yakov asks. “What did you think? What were your impressions?”

Yuri gives them a gruff but complete rundown of the exam, and Yakov and Liliya seem satisfied.

“You will have done well enough for the physical exam, I am sure,” Liliya says. “Come. There’s time for a short training session before this evening.”

Yuri gives one more glare at Katsuki and Viktor, who are both beaming like proud parents.

“You’re really incredible for doing this at such a young age,” Katsuki says, “though I do still disagree with your methods for getting here.” He looks pointedly at the automail leg.

“Too late now, Katsudon.”

Katsuki just sighs and leads Viktor away by the hand.

“See you tomorrow, Yurio!” Viktor calls with a wave.

Yuri growls, but Liliya clears her throat and jerks her head for him to follow her, so they leave for a brief training session.

When Yuri is ordered to rest up the rest of the evening, he takes it to mean he’s free to explore the city on his own for a while.

He gets some weird tasting food, checks in on some random theater-looking building, meanders through a park and watches birds and dogs and even finds a frog.

It doesn’t quite feel like he’s on the brink of a major career change.

But tomorrow, he’s going to become the world’s youngest State Alchemist.

*

His physical exam is, mercifully, at 2 in the afternoon, so Yuri gets to sleep in a bit, have a nice, leisurely lunch with Yakov and Liliya, and then warm up as he likes.

He stretches, jogs, bounces and tests his body’s responsiveness.

He and Liliya engage in a light spar, to warm up his reflexes, and then he does some quiet meditation until the proctor comes to fetch him.

This time, there’s an audience: any State Alchemist is allowed to observe certification exams, should they so choose. This means that Viktor and Katsuki are both there, eagerly waiting to see what Yuri will do.

(Yuri is slightly surprised they don’t have a banner with his name on it or something.)

When everyone is seated, including a panel of examiners, the proctor clears her throat.

“Yuri Plisetsky, you are here today to demonstrate your physical alchemy skills as a part of the State Alchemist Certification Examination.

“You will have fifteen minutes to demonstrate your skills in the manner of your choosing. An approximately ten-minute debriefing will follow, including potential questions from the exam board.

“Do you have any questions before we begin?” she finishes, clicking her pen aggressively.

“No,” Yuri replies, and if there’s a hint of overconfidence in his voice, no one bothers to comment.

“You may begin when you’re ready,” a stern woman with ugly, straight cut bangs says, pushing her glasses up her nose. Yuri recognizes her but can’t quite place where he’s seen her before.

He pushes the thought from his mind, because she doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is that he absolutely crushes this demonstration.

He starts off by presenting the back of his hand bearing a transmutation circle on the fingerless glove he wears. He had wanted to start right away without the circle, but Liliya insisted that he show a more textbook version of alchemy first.

So he visualizes what he wants to create, places his hands on the ground, and draws out a long bo staff.

Out of the corner of his eye, Yuri sees one of the examiners write something on the paper in front of him.

_Don’t look at them,_ he reminds himself. _Focus on what you need to do._

He takes a deep breath, and then begins a series of fluid but aggressive movements with the staff, demonstrating several fighting forms. He can hear Liliya’s voice in his head, telling him to keep his center balanced, to keep his wrists loose.

After six intensive weeks, he doesn’t need the reminders: this routine has been drilled into his body and soul.

He decides he’s doing well enough that he even improvises a few flashier modifications that he’s sure will earn him an earful later. (His certification will be worth it, though.)

When he completes the first part of the routine, he makes a show of removing his glove with his teeth and then tossing it carelessly on the ground.

He then claps his hands together in front of him and slams his hand to the ground, grinning as he hears a startled noise from at _least_ one of the examiners. He transmutes the staff into a small pouch full of long senbon, and then creates a rather sophisticated, anatomically accurate dummy, which he sets up between him and the examiners. He then draws back about ten meters, still facing the examination panel directly.

When they realize that he’s going through the senbon _towards_ them, they seem to shift ever so slightly in discomfort.

_Perfect_ , thinks Yuri.

He arranges the senbon between his fingers comfortably, and then begins his second act.

With precise movements, Yuri throws the first two senbon at the dummy in quick succession: the first strikes in the jugular notch, and the second in the brachial plexus.

The remaining six find their targets easily in the other major pressure points of the body.

Satisfied with the precision of the placement, he claps his hands once more and rotates the dummy around for the examiners to inspect more closely.

“You’ll note that each of the senbon have been embedded in a vital pressure point of the body,” he explains, listing each power point in the order in which they were hit. “These pressure points, along with other vital areas of the body, can be exploited in a fight, or contribute to healing, depending on the method.”

He continues a short explanation of the importance of the vital points in a healing context, the examiners occasionally noting things on their clipboards.

Yuri concludes with a smirk and a shallow bow. “Any questions?”

Yuri only just manages to keep his patience with the bangs-lady’s questions, but around half an hour later, he’s receiving his pocket watch, freshly engraved.

“How’s it feel?” Yuri taunts Viktor, “knowing that I’m going to break all of your records?”

Viktor just smiles. “I couldn’t be prouder.”

“I look forward to seeing you grow,” Katsuki tells him with earnest warmth in his eyes. “I think you have many things to contribute to the world of alchemy. And I think you’ll help encourage others to do their very best, too.”

Katsuki looks meaningfully at Viktor.

“So are you gonna get back to what you’re actually good at?” Yuri asks Viktor.

“I don’t see why I can’t do both,” Viktor says decisively. “It’s true that my background is stronger in metallurgy, but why not explore new passions, too?”

“I’ll pay you to never say the word ‘passions’ again,” Yuri deadpans.

“Don’t be such a child,” Liliya says with a dismissive eye roll.

“You’re welcome back here any time, Yurio,” Katsuki says.

“Don’t hold your breath,” Yuri says, but he doesn’t mean it.

He’ll stick with Liliya a little longer—he’s certain she has plenty more to teach him—but it’s nice to know that he’s got an escape route, if he needs it.

The youngest State Alchemist can’t work _all_ the time: he’s got his whole life ahead of him.

His automail leg twinges awkwardly as he walks away with Liliya. Maybe he did something odd to it during his exam?

He should really find a regular automail mechanic for maintenance.

But that’s a project for another day.

**Author's Note:**

> thank u for reading ! 
> 
> come find me on [tumblr](http://www.ricekrispyjoints.tumblr.com), if you're into that kind of thing


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